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Stance control with the active knee orthosis ALLOR for post-stroke patients during walking

Abstract:

Strategies for gait rehabilitation that employ active orthosis and exoskeletons have been proposed to improve the mobility and to accelerate functional recovery of post-stroke patients. The challenge for these devices is to encourage active participation of the patient and for this purpose, impedance and damping modulation can be applied at the device’s joints during gait. Here, we present the protocol and results of the application of stance control in an active knee orthosis, which works under impedance and damping adjustment based on gait phases. Experimental results of this pilot study carried out on three post-stroke patients showed that our active orthosis offers knee support in 50% of the gait cycle. A positive effect of the controller on the patients, regarding safety during the gait was also found, with a score of 4.64 in a scale of 5, using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with Assistive Technology (QUEST 2.0).